Jabir ibn Hayyan | AlchemyHQ

In 1942, a Czech-born Orientalist named Paul Kraus published the first volume of what was meant to be a comprehensive study of Jabir ibn Hayyan, the eighth-century Arab alchemist known to the Latin West as Geber. The work, Jābir ibn Ḥayyān: Contribution à l’histoire des idées scientifiques dans l’Islam, has never been completed, and the two volumes that did appear remain the most important single study of the Jabirian corpus ever written. The reason the work matters is that Kraus established, more thoroughly than anyone before him, that the Arabic corpus attributed to Jabir is enormous, internally consistent, and stratified across at least three or four generations of authors. Jabir the historical person — if there was a single person — was almost certainly an active alchemist in Kufa and Baghdad in the late eighth century. The “Jabir” of the corpus is something larger: a school, a movement, and a theoretical system (Kraus, 1942-1943; Holmyard, Alchemy, 1957, pp. 60-92; Sezgin, GAS vol. 4, 1971, pp. 1-247).

Whether all the texts in the corpus are by the same author is doubtful. The theoretical core is consistent, and the consistency is what makes the corpus “Jabirian” in the sense that matters. The system is built on the four elements and a mercury-sulfur duality that would dominate Arabic and Latin alchemical theory for the next five centuries. The full tria prima of mercury, sulfur, and salt is a later 16th-century Paracelsian addition, as Principe and Newman have repeatedly emphasized, and the reader who attributes the tria prima to Jabir is reading anachronistically (Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy, 2013, pp. 88-95; Newman, Promethean Ambitions, 2004, pp. 91-105).

The life, such as it is

Jabir ibn Hayyan was born in Tus, in the Iranian province of Khorasan, around 721 CE. His father was a pharmacist who supported the Abbasid cause, and the family moved to Yemen when the Abbasid revolution failed in Khorasan. After the Abbasid revolution succeeded in 750, the family returned to Iraq, and Jabir lived in Kufa and Baghdad for much of his life.

The traditional accounts report that Jabir was a student of the sixth Shia imam, Ja’far al-Sadiq, and the Ismaili tradition claims Jabir as one of its leading intellectual figures. The Barmakid family, the powerful Abbasid viziers who supported the early translation movement, are also credited with a close relationship to Jabir; the Barmakids were patrons of the Bayt al-Hikma in Baghdad, and Jabir was associated with the Bayt al-Hikma’s program of translation and original research (Kraus, vol. 1, 1942). The historical Jabir is a shadowy figure, and many of the details of his life are uncertain. The Arabic corpus attributed to him is enormous — over a thousand treatises by traditional count — and the question of which texts are by the historical Jabir and which are by later followers is debated. Kraus’s work is the careful version of the debate; most subsequent discussions rely on him.

The corpus

The Arabic corpus attributed to Jabir includes theoretical works, practical treatises, mystical texts, and commentaries. The most important of the texts are:

The “Books of the Balances” (Kutub al-Mawāzīn), a series of texts that develop the theoretical framework of the Jabirian system: the four elements, the mercury-sulfur duality, the numerological scheme, the doctrine of the qualities.
The “Books of Seventy” (Kutub al-Sab’īn), texts attributed to the Jabirian circle that develop the practical and mystical dimensions of the work.
The “Book of Stones” (Kitāb al-Aḥjār), a treatise on the mineral substances used in the alchemical art and their properties.
The “Book of the Composition of Metals” (Kitāb al-Tadhkīr), a comprehensive treatise on the alchemical art that integrates the theoretical, practical, and mystical dimensions of the work (Holmyard, 1957, pp. 60-92).

The corpus was translated into Latin in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the Latin translations became the foundation of the Latin alchemical tradition. The most important of the Latin texts is the Summa perfectionis attributed to the “pseudo-Geber” — probably Paul of Taranto, fl. c. 1250 — which is a Latin synthesis of the Jabirian and Raziian traditions. The Summa became the most influential alchemical textbook of the Latin medieval period, and it remained standard reading for alchemists until the seventeenth century (Newman, The “Summa Perfectionis” of Pseudo-Geber, 1991). The Latin “Geber” is therefore not a translation of Jabir in the strict sense. He is a Latin author working in the Jabirian tradition. The distinction is important, and Newman has spent three decades making it clear.

The theory of matter

The Jabirian theory of matter is built on two main components: the Aristotelian four elements and a mercury-sulfur theory of metallic composition. The four elements are the primary constituents of matter, and they combine in different proportions to produce all observable substances. Mercury and sulfur — both understood as principles, not as the ordinary substances — are the immediate principles of the metals. Mercury represents fusibility and volatility. Sulfur represents combustibility and the soul-like aspect of the metal. The character of each metal is determined by the balance and the purity of the two principles (Holmyard, 1957, pp. 65-78).

The Jabirian theory of metallic composition is the practical application of the mercury-sulfur duality. The metals are made of mercury and sulfur in different proportions, and the character of each metal is determined by the balance of the two. Gold is the metal in which the mercury and sulfur are pure and perfectly balanced. Lead is the metal in which they are impure and unbalanced. The theory is simple, and the simplicity is part of why it lasted. It explained the visible properties of the metals, and it gave the alchemist a program of work: balance the unbalanced, purify the impure, and produce the perfect metal.

The numerological system is one of the more distinctive features of the Jabirian framework, and the system is the feature most modern readers find hardest to take seriously. Jabir was influenced by Pythagorean numerology, transmitted to the Arab world through Greek and Jewish sources, and he developed an elaborate system in which the letters of the Arabic alphabet encode the properties of substances. The system is a way of organizing the empirical observations of the laboratory and of predicting the behavior of substances that have not yet been tested. The numerology was criticized by the later Arabic alchemists, and al-Razi rejected the numerological framework in favor of a more empirical approach. The numerology remained part of the Jabirian system, and it influenced the later Latin alchemical tradition, including the numerological schemes of Roger Bacon.

The experimental program

The Jabirian experimental program is particularly notable for its time, and the program is one of the more impressive things about the corpus. Jabir called for systematic, repeated trials, careful attention to apparatus, and skepticism toward claims that were not reproduced in the laboratory. He developed a sophisticated theory of experimental method: the careful preparation of materials, the controlled application of heat, the systematic observation and recording of the results (Kraus, vol. 2, 1943).

The experimental program anticipates many of the features of the modern scientific method, and Jabir is sometimes credited as a founder of experimental science. The credit is exaggerated — the alchemical program is not the modern scientific program — but the exaggeration contains a real point. The alchemists were doing serious laboratory work, and the Jabirian tradition is one of the places where the laboratory work is most clearly articulated as a method.

Jabir is credited with the discovery of several important chemical substances — nitric acid, sulfuric acid, aqua regia — and with the development of new methods of distillation, crystallization, and sublimation (Holmyard, 1957, pp. 80-85). The attributions are uncertain, and the discoveries may be the work of later members of the school. The discoveries are part of the Jabirian tradition, and the tradition is the more impressive for them.

The religious and mystical dimensions

The Jabirian corpus includes a substantial body of religious and mystical texts, and the religious dimension is an integral part of the Jabirian system. The alchemist, in the Jabirian view, is engaged in a sacred work, and the alchemical work is inseparable from the religious life (Kraus, vol. 2, 1943). The religious dimension is closely linked to the Ismaili tradition, the esoteric branch of Shia Islam, which gave the Jabirian system a sophisticated religious framework. The Ismaili alchemists of the later medieval period, including al-Jildaki (d. c. 1340s), developed the Jabirian religious framework in new directions, and the development is one of the more interesting features of the medieval Arabic alchemical tradition.

The religious dimension of the Jabirian system is also visible in the ethical requirements the system imposes on the alchemist. The Jabirian alchemist is required to be morally pure, to study the religious sciences, to perform the religious duties, and to work for the benefit of the community. The alchemist who is not morally pure cannot succeed in the alchemical work. The ethical requirements are not a side note. They are part of the theoretical framework, and the framework makes no sense without them.

The transmission to the Latin West

The Jabirian corpus was transmitted to the Latin West in two main waves of translation, both centered on the Iberian Peninsula and southern Italy. The first wave, in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, was centered on the translation schools of Toledo and Barcelona, and the most important translators were Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187) and John of Seville (fl. 1133-1142). The second wave, in the thirteenth century, was centered on the Sicilian court of Frederick II and the Italian universities. Michael Scot (c. 1175-c. 1235) is sometimes credited with major Jabir translations, but the credit should be hedged. Scot is more famous as a translator of Aristotle, Averroes, and the pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum Secretorum than as a translator of Jabir specifically. The major Jabir translations are the Toledo school of Gerard and John of Seville (Newman, 1991; Principe, 2013, pp. 50-55).

The Latin translations of the Jabirian corpus became the foundation of the Latin alchemical tradition, and the Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber was the most influential single text. The Jabirian influence on the Latin alchemical tradition was enormous. The mercury-sulfur theory of metals became the standard theoretical framework of the Latin tradition. The Jabirian experimental program became the standard of laboratory practice. The Jabirian religious and mystical dimensions became the framework within which the Latin alchemists understood their work.

The legacy

The Jabirian legacy is one of the more important in the history of alchemy and chemistry, and the legacy is still being worked out. The Jabirian theory of matter, the experimental program, the religious framework, and the transmission to the Latin West are major contributions to the development of the Western scientific and philosophical tradition (Kraus, 1942-1943; Holmyard, 1957, pp. 85-92; Newman, 2004). The Jabirian legacy is visible in the modern reception of the alchemical tradition. The Theosophical Society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Anthroposophical Society, and the various modern Rosicrucian orders all draw on the Jabirian system as a major source of their theoretical and practical work.

The historical Jabir is one of the most important figures in the history of alchemy and chemistry, and the corpus attributed to him is the foundation of the Arabic alchemical tradition. The Arabic tradition is the foundation of the Western alchemical tradition, and the Kraus work is the place to start.